Ministry of SMEs and Startups Signs MOU with Inter-American Development Bank to Establish Foundation for Startup Expansion into Latin America

Exploring the Formation of IDB Joint Fund and Promotion of ODA Cooperation Projects

Kang Sung-chun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (left), and Mauricio Claver-Carone, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (right), are taking a commemorative photo after signing a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the SME sector at the IDB headquarters in Washington, USA, on the 28th (local time).
[Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Minjae] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 29th that it has signed the ‘Ministry of SMEs and Startups-IDB Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)’ for cooperation in the SME sector with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The signing ceremony held on the 28th at the IDB headquarters in Washington DC, USA, was attended by Kang Seongcheon, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, President of the IDB. The main contents of the MOU include ▲ efforts to establish a joint fund ▲ joint promotion of cooperation projects related to digitalization, e-commerce, technology credit evaluation, venture and startup support ▲ strengthening expert exchange programs and cooperative exchanges.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, this MOU was signed with the purpose of activating exchange and cooperation with innovative startups in Latin America, where there is high growth potential demand, and promoting cooperative projects utilizing Korea’s excellent policy experience in the SME sector. Latin America not only has great economic growth potential due to abundant natural resources but also has seen significant growth in innovation technology-based markets, with the number of unicorn companies increasing from only four in 2018 to 31 by the end of last year.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will begin working-level consultations with IDB Lab to establish the joint fund. They plan to share progress and experiences related to smart factories, e-commerce, technology credit evaluation systems, TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startups led by Private investment), Youth Academy, and Technopark development, and simultaneously discover cooperative projects in the Latin American region together with the IDB.

Vice Minister Kang said, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has a great potential demand to broadly promote close cooperation with the IDB in various fields such as policy exchange related to SMEs, ventures, and startups, ODA project discovery, and corporate exchange cooperation for the development of Latin America.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.